Thursday, January 19 2006 18:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Amid boycott by the principal opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) rebels, Karnataka Governor T N Chaturvedi today (Jan 19, 2006) said the Congress-JDS Government would build four lakh houses and operationalise the Bangalore International Airport by 2008.

"To provide assistance to all persons living below poverty line to have a house in the shortest possible time, the Government has completed 2.14 lakh incomplete houses and sanctioned another 2.75 this year. It is proposed to complete another four lakh houses during the year," he said in his address to the joint session of the state legislature.

Appealing to slogan shouting JDU members to hear the programmes being outlined for people, Chaturvedi said, "It has been decided to establish tele-medicine network in 14 districts apart from 13 where the facility has already been established."

In his 40-minute-long address to the house, which had entire opposition benches empty and majority of ruling side benches in the wake of the boycott declared by the aspiring new coalition partners, JD-S and BJP, Chaturvedi said the Government proposed to set up 800 Village Tele Centres under public private partnership to make available the Government services to common man at village level.

"The Integrated Citizen Centres established under project 'Bangalore One' to provide services to citizens in the city would be extended to cover major cities like Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum and Mangalore," he said.